He is wearing it, of course, to highlight the case of Trayvon Martin, the hoodie-wearing 17-year-old who was fatally shot last month by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida.

When I asked Davis about it, he contrasted the case, in which the alleged shooter (who has white and Hispanic parents) was not arrested despite police finding Martin unarmed, with his own brush with the law in high school. Davis, who is black, was cleared of a misdemeanor theft charge in 1991, according to court records.

In that case, when he was 18, Davis said, he was arrested despite having dozens of lacrosse teammates who could vouch for his whereabouts at the time of the alleged theft.

“It seems as if the system is constantly failing minorities,” Davis said.

The hoodie

Davis wore the hoodie to Tuesday’s public session.

Wearing the hoodie forces an alteration to an early Davis trademark on the dais: the pencil behind the ear. In his first several meetings after his swearing-in as the District B councilman in January, Davis had the pencil at the ready. The hoodie, of course, would knock it off his ear. But Davis said the pencil will return (perhaps as he considers the city’s $1.8 billion general fund budget). Davis developed the habit as an educator.

Another sartorial gesture of Davis’s early Council service was the bow tie. Davis explained that he wore bow ties to his first few Council meetings as an homage to William-Paul Thomas, Mayor Annise Parker‘s council liaison, because Thomas was so helpful in helping educate and orient him to Council business.

District B Leadership:

Council Member Jerry Davis will be hosting the monthly District B Neighborhood Advisory Council Meeting, Monday, March 19, 2012 at the Kashmere Multi-Service Center at 6:00 PM in the auditorium. If your individual community has a comprehensive plan that outlines how you all would like to see your community in the future please email me a copy. If there is no electronic format of the plan please bring a copy. This meeting will be a working meeting in your committees. We look forward to seeing you all and if there are any immediate needs give us a call here at the office: 832.393.3009